Only 11% of Fund Managers Expect Taper This Week: BofA

By Brendan Conway

For all the chatter that the Federal Reserve could begin scaling back its bond buying as soon as this week, that’s not how fund managers see it.

Asked by Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s strategists last week when they expect the Fed’s “taper” to begin, only 11% of fund managers said December. March got 42%; February clocked in at 32%. So the great majority of fund managers expect the beginning of the end of central-bank largesse in the next three months.

The interesting shift from the same survey last month is the larger number of respondents who now expect the ball to get rolling in January — this group more than doubled.

Another interesting finding: 71% also say they expect a stronger global economy over the coming year, suggesting that they don’t see much harm from the “taper.”

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